Pierre Bourque of www.bourque.org has posted the following on his site:
Bourque: “Now Is Time For Canada To Help !”
A personal message from Pierre: “Folks, you’ve been following the terribly destructive effect of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds, likely thousands, of people have died. Hundreds of thousands have been devastated, they’ve lost everything. Millions have been affected in one way or another. As tragic news pours in from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere in the American south, it seems incredible that the Government of Canada and various Provincial Governments have not stepped up to offer aid wherever/however they can. Not a peep, zip. “I don’t know, that’s not my department, I’m on holidays”, joked one Ontario Cabinet minister encountered by Bourque at an Ottawa restaurant early this afternoon. Come again, Mr. “Honourable” ? Is that how his American counterparts reacted when the devastating ice storm wreaked havoc through Ontario and Quebec back in 1998 ? … Let me be the first in this country to publicly ask the Prime Minister and Provincial Premiers to publicly offer up our collective help. Time to belly up to the bar, boys. Time to pour forth the milk of human kindness. Send in food, send in water cleaning machines, send in our military, send in a couple of hundred 2-seater Sea Doos to help save people from their rooftops … Whatever you need to do, do it now, do it while it can make a difference, do it while it can save lives … And one last thing, this a request to my readers, please spread the word, get the message out far and wide, shout it loud, talk to your MP or MPP, call the PMO (613) 992-4211, email the PM, tell your elected official that we need to help and we need to do it now. Thanks, – pierre
AND HE IS RIGHT….
In terms of Water Purification, we have Zenon Industries down the QEW from Toronto in Burlington. It is time to do what we did in Sri Lanka (and I am not referring to the PM’s photo-op) and send purification units to New Orleans ASAP!
Join the call to action and let PM Martin know that after sitting on his butt for a week after the Tsumani last year that we no longer tolerate his inaction when it results in Canada not helping people who are suffering because of natural disasters!
I have to disagree with Mr. Bourque. Sending our businesses down there, I’m all for. FEMA has money, but they need firms down there to do the work for them, and if Canada has the right firms to do the job, then hop to it.
However, it is not the Canadian taxpayer’s responsibilty to look after the citizens of a first-world nation, especially the USA. Unless I am mistaken (and I don’t think I am,) Canada did not even help during 9/11, which delivered $2 trillion in damage1, nor did the Americans help us during any of our natural disasters.
I understand that New Orleans has been effectively rendered area non grata (so to speak) but that is simply not our responsibility in terms of foreign aid. Our responsibility is moreso the people of the developing world.
Mind you, living conditions for the lower classes in N.O. might as well be considered third world for many of them.
Dana,
It is rare that I disagree with you, let alone this strongly. Being from Winnipeg, you should know that we owe the Americans for all their help in the past at the very least. The reason that so many Canadian Forces soldiers were moved into Winnipeg and area during the 1997 floods was that the US Air Force moved them and their equipment. Furthermore, I am not calling for the CF to restore order in N.O., what I am calling for is the DART team to get down to the Gulf states, give medical assistance and create safe clean drinking water. I know that if this kind of disaster were occuring in Canada, the Americans would be there for us. As a aside to my comment, I am glad to see that the Navy and Coast Guard are on their way from Halifax.
I can admit when I’m wrong.
I’m glad that Canada and other countries are helping. I had set up a false dichotomy assuming that, by helping the affected people on the Gulf Coast, Canada would somehow be less able to help others in the world. This, of course, is not the case, but I deluded myself into believing it at the time.
Actually Dana, you are right in the fact that Canada is less able to help others in the world right now if say for example a typhoon were to hit Sri Lanka. So there is validity to your point of view. Mind you that FEMA is going to be hard pressed to respond to anything either, say an earthquake in L.A.